In something of a consolation prize, Mitt Romney's running
mate
Paul Ryan won his Wisconsin seat in the House of
Representatives. A key upset came in Florida where
Tea Party favorite Allen West lost to Democratic challenger
Patrick Murphy.

The election results have also ignited a sharp rally in the
gold markets. The thinking is that with Obama in the
White House, expectations are high that Ben Bernanke or some other monetary policy
dove will be at the helm of the Federal Reserve for a lot
longer.

U.S. futures told an interesting story overnight. As
Obama's chances of re-election appeared to improve, futures
initially sank. This seemed to be in line with Wall
Street's thesis that a Romney win would be better for
stocks. However, futures recovered all of their losses
after Obama secured re-election. This appears to be in
line with the idea that no matter who wins, the
improving sense of certainty is bullish.